Abstract

We are experiencing a unique epoch in the history of galaxy cluster studies.
We have now open windows across the whole electromagnetic spectrum which offer
us complementary approaches for cluster detection and analyses.
Almost forty years after its theoretical prediction, first large
radio telescopes started to scan the sky looking for massive clusters as "shadows"
in the cosmic microwave background imprinted there by their hot gas content
via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE). In X-rays this hot
plasma can be observed also directly. Optical and infrared telescopes give us
a view on the galaxy population of clusters and through gravitational lensing
also on its dominant, invisible component - the dark matter.
The advent of multi-wavelength cluster surveys brings also the necessity to
compare and cross-calibrate each cluster detection approach. This is the
main aim of this work carried out in the framework of the XMM-\emph{Newton}-Blanco
Cosmology Survey project (XMM-BCS). This project is a coordinated
multi-wavelength survey in a 14~deg$^2$ test region covered in the optical band
by the Blanco Cosmology Survey, in the mid-infrared by the \emph{Spitzer} Space
Telescope and in X-rays by XMM-\emph{Newton}. This area is also part of the sky scanned
by both SZE survey instruments: the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Atacama
Cosmology Telescope (ACT).
In the first part of the thesis I describe the analysis of the initial 6~deg$^2$
core of the X-ray survey field. From the detected extended sources a cluster
catalog comprising 46 objects is constructed. These cluster candidates are
confirmed as significant galaxy overdensities in the optical data, their
photometric redshifts are measured and for a subsample confirmed with
spectroscopic measurements.
I provide physical parameters of the
clusters derived from X-ray luminosity and carry out a first comparison with
optical studies. The cluster catalog will be useful for direct cross-comparison
with optical/mid-infrared catalogs, for the investigation of the survey selection
functions, stacking analysis of the SZE signal and for cosmological analyses after combing
with clusters detected in the extension of the survey.
The extension of the survey to 14~deg$^2$ is a first scientific utilization of
the novel XMM-\emph{Newton} mosaic mode observations. I have developed a data analysis
pipeline for this operation mode and report on the discovery of two galaxy
clusters, SPT-CL~J2332-5358 and SPT-CL~J2342-5411, in X-rays. The clusters were
also independently detected through their SZE signal by the SPT and in the
optical band in the BCS data. They are thus the first clusters detected under
survey conditions by all major cluster search approaches. This work also
demonstrates the potential of the mosaic mode observations to effectively cover
large sky areas and detect massive clusters out to redshifts $\sim1$ even with
shallow exposures.
The last part of the thesis provides an example of a multi-wavelength
analysis of two high-redshift ($z>1$) systems in the framework of the XMM-\emph{Newton}
Distant Cluster Project. With the detection and studies of these
high redshift systems we are for the first time able to see the
assembly phase of the galaxy population of the clusters, which in
nearby systems is totally passive, but at these high redshifts
still show signatures of star formation.